GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan -- Now that the cost of gasoline has topped $4 a gallon, we could all use a break.

Many workers, including public employees, very understandably would welcome a shorter work week, reducing the amount of driving they do to and from the job.

The Genesee County Board of Commissioners is looking at the idea of allowing county employees to work a four-day week under certain circumstances, but the idea took a drubbing when department heads weighed in on it.

Tamara Yorks, director of the county's Emergency Management & Homeland Security Department, didn't mince words when she told commissioners, "Tornadoes don't seem to know they can only come four days a week.''

We're pretty sure that tornadoes don't come according to a set schedule in Oakland County, either. Yet that neighboring county has found a way to offer up to 1,500 of its employees the opportunity to work four days, at 10 hours each day, rather than five days a week.

That is not, of course, a perfect comparison. Oakland County has far more employees than Genesee County does, and thus enjoys greater flexibility in how it schedules workers.

Nor do we underestimate the other challenges of implementing such an approach locally. We understand, for instance, that the county jail is going to remain open seven days a week and needs to be staffed.

We also understand the concern of department heads that four-day work weeks might not allow them to keep their offices open to the public Monday through Friday.

Still, we do not think the county board was wrong to raise the issue and don't see resistance from administrators as sufficient reason to kill the idea.

The high cost of gasoline has become such a burden to workers, particularly those on the lower end of the pay scale, that any employer ought to be willing to consider providing some relief when possible.

We also think county board Chairman Woodrow Stanley was looking at the bigger picture when he observed that the county needs to continue looking for new ways to do business. "Things are different, and they are going to be even more different," he said.

How true. For all employers, be they public or private, looking at the question of a four-day work week can be a good exercise in learning how to be more flexible and creative in other ways as well. These challenging times demand nothing less.